Military Professional Characteristics

Military expertise is the most important characteristic of the Army profession. The Army is the first and last line of defense of our nations freedoms and values. It is essential that we as a nation maintain superior knowledge and abilities within our force in order to remain the most capable military organization in the world. Of the five professional characteristics, Military expertise is the most important because with out the ability and expertise to secure victory against the enemy all other characteristics become meaningless.

ADRP 1 defines military expertise as: “Military expertise is the ethical design, generation, support, and application of landpower, primarily in unified land operations, and all supporting capabilities essential

These fields tackle the complex needs our country demands from us in the national and international areans. Every soldier in every cohort goes through periods of institutional training and on the job training covering these fields. The soldier learns up to a certain level in the tradoc environment then is sent to the force to apply what they have learned and gain real life experience. Then, usually at the next promotion level they return to tradoc to receive the next level of required knowledge. Additionaly the Army promotes the idea of being a lifelong learner and encourages the study of fields according to individual preferences to allow a truly broad depth of expertise across our fellow service members. During the initial phases of the air campaign in world war 2 many allied planes were no match for the axis aircraft. However mismatches on paper do not gurantee victoy in reality. Allied pilots superior expertise were able to maximize their aircrafts abiliites and overcome the deficienes that existed to defeat the more advanced

For example a doctor will have been certified by a medical board and can provide the patient proof of their qualifications. The Army is no different. We have our own set of ceritifcations at every level and cohort groups that our client the American people can verify and have trust in our abilities.

The army defines certification as “Certification is verification and validation of an Army professional’s character, competence, and commitment to fulfill responsibilities and successfully perform assigned duty with discipline and to standard” Therefore when anyone sees a solider in uniform they can be assured that individual has met the qualification of morals, ethics, and technical knowledge to represent our nation on and off the battlefield.